In this final episode of the series, I sit down with architect, author, and educator Per Olaf Fjeld, a former student and close friend of Sverre Fehn. Our conversation explores not just Fehn’s work, but his worldview — his belief that architecture is a continuous negotiation between memory and modernity, material and metaphor.

Per Olaf offers a rare first-hand insight into Fehn’s creative process: how he thought, how he taught, and how he worked. Together, we revisit the Storhamar Barn, but also travel through Fehn’s other landmark projects — always returning to the question of how architecture should relate to time.

This episode is both personal and philosophical. It’s about what it means to be an architect. And what it means to build with care.

In this episode, we explore:

● Fehn’s idea of the “architectural horizon” - the space between ground and sky, where people live and buildings speak

● How Fehn’s architecture resists nostalgia while still honouring the past

● The role of memory, metaphor, and myth in architectural form

● What Per Olaf learned from Fehn - and why it matters for architects today

Key Themes and Discussion Highlights

● Defining architecture through presence, not style

● Living with ambiguity: Fehn’s comfort with incomplete narratives

● Architecture as a cultural act, not just a technical one

● Teaching and legacy: how Fehn shaped the next generation

● Reflections on life, loss, and building meaningfully

Guest Info:

Per Olaf Fjeld Architect and writer Former professor and rector, Oslo School of Architecture and Design Co-author of Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts

Resources and Links

● Watch the full conversation with Per Olaf Fjeld

● Full YouTube walkthrough of the Storhamar Barn

● Read The Pattern of Thoughts – Per Olaf Fjeld on Sverre Fehn

● Explore the full An Architect’s Perspective series

Quotes from the Episode

“He believed architecture should never just imitate the past - it should speak to it.”

“There’s a silence in Fehn’s work. But it’s not empty. It’s full of questions.”

Website: www.jameshamiltonarchitects.com

Instagram: @jameshamiltonarchitects

Production: onefineplay.com

Today we’re in Hamar, Norway, to explore one of the most powerful architectural interventions of the last century: Sverre Fehn’s museum within the ruins of Storhamar Barn. To guide us through it, I’m joined by architect and writer Per Olaf Fjeld, who worked closely with Fehn and has written extensively on his legacy.

Storhamar is not a restoration. It’s an architectural conversation across centuries. Rather than rebuilding the medieval barn, Fehn inserted a timber and concrete structure inside its shell - careful not to touch the original stone walls. What emerges is an experience of walking through time: past and present suspended in a single space.

Fehn believed that architecture should never erase history. Instead, he asked how we might build beside it - allowing old and new to remain in honest dialogue.

In this episode, we discuss:

● Why Fehn’s approach at Storhamar was more subtraction than addition

● The role of contrast — concrete against stone, timber against light — in making materials legible

● How Fehn’s philosophy of presence shaped the spatial choreography of the barn

● The ethics of architectural restraint and how it plays out in this museum

Key Themes and Discussion Highlights

● Building in relation to memory and time

● The architectural power of silence and stillness

● Material clarity as a moral stance

● Fehn’s humanistic approach to scale and light

● Storhamar as an example of quiet modernism at its most articulate

Guest Info

Per Olaf Fjeld is a Norwegian architect, educator, and author. He collaborated with Sverre Fehn early in his career and later became one of the leading interpreters of Fehn’s work, publishing several books and essays that explore his architectural thinking.

Resources and Links

● Watch the full film on Storhamar Barn

● Read Per Olaf Fjeld’s writing on Sverre Fehn

● Norwegian Architecture Museum – Archive on Storhamar

Quotes from the Episode:

- “Fehn didn’t try to finish the building. He tried to listen to what was already there.”

- “This is a museum that doesn’t tell you what to think. It asks you to pay attention.”

Website: www.jameshamiltonarchitects.com

Instagram: @jameshamiltonarchitects

Production: OneFinePlay.com

Welcome back to An Architect’s Perspective. I’m James Hamilton, and in this episode, we explore Skywood House - a landmark of minimalist architecture by Graham Phillips, completed in 1999.

Tucked into the English countryside, Skywood House is built entirely from glass, concrete, and steel. But its impact isn’t about materials. It’s about mood. This is minimalism as atmosphere: a house of light and silence.

Walking through the house, I reflect on what makes it work. How do you design restraint? What does it mean to frame nature without dominating it? What makes this house - almost 25 years later - still feel contemporary?

The film takes you through the architecture with a designer’s eye. The podcast explores what this kind of architecture asks of its occupants - and what it gives in return.

Key Moments & Topics of Conversation

● The influence of Mies van der Rohe and the language of precision

● Designing with a limited palette: the discipline of material choice

● The role of reflection, rhythm, and repetition in minimalist design

● Why abstraction doesn’t mean absence — and how this house holds emotion

● Personal reflections on architecture as a framing device, not a container

● Why Skywood is less about minimalism as a trend, and more about architecture as calm

Host Info

James Hamilton, founder of James Hamilton Architects. Trained at Cambridge and Harvard, James brings a practitioner’s eye to every episode - offering grounded insight, clear storytelling, and a deep respect for the buildings under discussion.

Quotes

“Minimalism isn’t about less. It’s about focus. And Skywood House gives you nothing to hide behind.”

“There’s no ornament. No distraction. What you’re left with is the weight of space — and the clarity of thought behind it.”

“It’s a house that doesn’t try to say too much. Which is what makes it say so much.”

Website: www.jameshamiltonarchitects.com

Instagram: @jameshamiltonarchitects

Production: OneFinePlay.com